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Oceanfront sale still pending

Deal to be finalized within weeks, says mayor
The District of Squamish is waiting for the Province to sign off on the Oceanfront deal.

Believe it or not, the Squamish Oceanfront deal has still not come ashore.

The sale has dragged on and is yet to be resolved due to something called a Section 108, according to Mayor Patricia Heintzman. 

“It’s a rather obscure land issue in B.C.,” said Heintzman. 

“Because the land was estuary 60 or 70 years ago, it has to do with land that was water that is no longer water. It is a weird thing. No other province has this. It is something you need to make sure the title is 100 per cent clean.”

Section 108 has to be signed off on in order to subdivide the land, Heintzman explained.

The whole process has taken much longer than anyone involved in the sale anticipated, the mayor acknowledged.

In mid-September, council adopted several final bylaws essential to the close of the sale of the 105-acre waterfront property to Newport Beach Developments.

The district had been waiting for an order in council from provincial cabinet to sign off on Section 108, Heintzman said. 

The order in council came through on Nov. 20, and now the subdivision of the land into nine parcels has to be registered at the Land Titles Office. Once that happens, it will trigger a 15-day window within which Newport Beach Developments has to make final payment.

Heintzman said how long the final step takes is out of the district’s hands, but she is hopeful it will be complete in a matter of weeks. Then the deal will be done.

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